Occasionally I publish posts here reflecting my conversations with Global Media Outreach contacts who are seeking to learn about Jesus or grow in their relationship with Christ. I serve as a volunteer "online missionary" with this great organization that is reaching millions of people with the Gospel, all online. (If you'd like to know more about how to get trained and serve in this way, please let me know.)
One thing I love about my contacts, and particularly those in developing nations, is the astute theological questions that they ask. These questions always force me to study Scripture to find an answer, which always blesses me immensely (and hopefully blesses them as well).
One young man from Nigeria, with whom I have been corresponding extensively, recently asked:
"Please share your understanding or opinion of this verse: 'The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.'"
That was a very interesting question, because I had been perplexed by that verse many times but had never received sufficient motivation to truly dig into it. But now I had it! His question spurred me to read a number of evangelical commentaries on Matthew 11:12, and the scholars who wrote them all seem to more or less agree on an interpretation which makes very good sense to me, now that I've studied it through. And I also think it has some incredible applications to things we struggle with here, today, in America ... far, far away from Nigeria! (Where the church obviously struggles with many other issues.)
Here's how I responded to my contact:
Context is always important, but it's extremely important here in this passage in Matthew 11. Jesus has been speaking about his cousin and precursor, John the Baptist, who is now sitting in prison. John "made straight the way" for Jesus by preaching repentance of sin, baptizing, and pointing toward the coming Kingdom.
The sequence (in Matthew 11) really starts in verse 3 when John (from prison) sends his disciples to inquire of Jesus whether He truly is the one to come, or whether they should expect another?
We know that the Jews longed for deliverance from Roman oppression, and expectation was high that the coming Messiah would provide that deliverance. But it didn't seem to be happening. Jesus didn't appear to be in any hurry to raise an army. And so one can understand why John, sitting in a Roman prison, was growing tired of waiting. He essentially asks:
"Jesus, are you truly the Messiah? If so, WHEN are you going to bring the promised deliverance?" (I.e.,
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?")
Perhaps even John the Baptist, whom Jesus said was the greatest prophet ever born, didn't fully understand the nature of the Kingdom that Christ was ushering in.
In that context, Jesus' words in verse 12 make more sense: "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it." In their impatience for deliverance, crowds had thronged to the counter-cultural John. And they were doing the same thing to Jesus, in an even greater way. The New Testament tells us that even His own relatives sought to take Him by force and make Him their king. Why? They were all tired of waiting for military deliverance from the Romans. They wanted to "take matters into their own hands." (Sound familiar?)
I think the message for us, today, is that God's ways are not our ways. He does not bring the Kingdom to us on our terms, He brings it on His terms. In Christ's day, that meant turning the other cheek and laying down your life for those you loved ... not raising up an army.
How Does This Apply To Us, Today?
We may be passionate for the blessings and benefits of God's kingdom, as the hearers of both John and Jesus were. Here in America, we struggle mightily with a false teaching called the "prosperity gospel" (also known as "word of faith"). Some preachers teach that God does not want you to be poor, he wants you to be wealthy. All you need to do is name it and claim it. These preachers are ravenous wolves who fleece gullible people who are tired of living in a cycle of poverty and want to have nice things.
This false Gospel is (in a sense) an attempt by violent (passionately greedy) men to "take the Kingdom of God by force" -- to make it after their own image, to define it to be what they in their own flesh want it to be and not what God wants it to be.
But Christ will never allow that to happen. Ultimately, He is the head of the Body and the Body exists to serve Him and His plan. He is the one who decides what the Kingdom is and will become. That is why we must commit ourselves to following His lead (which is completely different than thronging Him and seeking to misuse His name to get what WE want).
